Shopping in Calgary
Mission/17th Avenue SWThis district, just south of downtown Calgary, is perfect for a circle walking tour. Just don’t forget your hunger or your credit card!
The tour takes you along 17th Avenue from 14th Street SW east to 4th Street SW, south to the Elbow River, and back through historic housing that begins with a mixture of working class homes in the Mission neighbourhood and ends with some of the grand old estates of Mount Royal.
Along 17th Avenue's ‘Red Mile’, you’ll find Calgary’s finest art galleries, some of which specialize in Western art and sculpture. If you go for pokey little antique stores, they’re there as well. Yoga clothing? Neat kitchen stores? Yup!
In the heart of the Red Mile, you’ll find Mount Royal Village, with its uptown, red label quality boutiques whose wares range from designer clothing for the no-limit credit card set to gifts so cool that they make givers wish they were receiving!
The avenue’s character soon focuses on funky street clothing with stores that offer everything from super cool baby clothing to some of the best shoes you can find in the city.
When you hit 4th Street SW, hang a right and, you’ll find yourself in the Mission neighbourhood. Along the few blocks between 17th Avenue and the Elbow River, you’ll find some great restaurants, many with patios just made for (hopefully sun drenched) tête-à-têtes over lunch or afternoon coffee. The fare at these relaxed, friendly establishments includes Latin American, Sushi, Garlic (yes!) and more.
One of Mission’s big attractions is its day spas. One, the Institut de Santé, is Canada’s only medically based spa, offering treatments such as intense pulse light, botox and medical microdermabrasion. After your treatment, drop into a hair salon and complete the picture!
At the end of your 17th Avenue/Mission discovery stroll, take a city map and use it to wander back into the neighbourhoods south of 17th Avenue and west of 4th Street SW. They start with the higgledy-piggledy houses of Mission, architectural variety is one of the reasons the movie industry loves to shoot there, and they end in Mount Royal, with the brick, stone and landscaping wonders of very old money, the impression of which is magnified by the fact that, right here on the prairies, there’s a real hill!
As you stroll Mount Royal, drop into the newly restored and highly impressive stone mansion built 115 years ago for Senator James Lougheed. Beaulieu: The Lougheed House, is a 2.5 acre National Historic Site well worth the investment of both time and curiousity.
Inglewood
Ironically, Calgary’s oldest neighbourhood is very quickly becoming the newest ‘gotta go’ centre for urbanites looking for the unique, the offbeat, the stylish and the tasty.
Inglewood is just a few blocks east of downtown Calgary, past Fort Calgary on 9th Avenue SE. It’s surrounded by basic to gentrified residential housing, and it’s only a short stroll over a bridge from the south entrance of the Calgary Zoo.
There, spread over just a few short blocks, you’ll discover a critical mass of creativity that leaps from furniture to sausages!
The area has one of Western Canada’s highest concentrations of antique stores. Movie props buyers flock there whenever they’re doing a period film in the Calgary area. These stores are highly eclectic. The ‘finds’ include funky almost-but-not-quite junk, great Canadiana and supreme examples of centuries old Chinese furniture, sculpture, vases and the like.
On the other end of the historical age scale, modern furniture and home décor are a major slice of Inglewood’s draw. There’s a profusion of little design shops and furniture designer builders.
Inglewood is fast becoming a gastronomic magnet. Lunch at Spolumbo’s Fine Foods & Deli (sausages like nowhere else!) is like celebrating with your extended Italian family. And for a high end ‘Calgary Cosmopolitan Cuisine’ experience, try dinner at The Rouge, an award-winning restaurant in an historic home on the banks of the Bow River.
Kensington and Eau Claire Market
The Kensington district is just a 20 minute stroll northwest from downtown, across the Louise Bridge on 10th Street NW.
This area, one of Calgary’s oldest, teems with the urban throb that comes with a mixture of wonderful old buildings, great shopping, a variety of entertainment and plenty of restaurants, bistros and coffee specialty shops.
You could spend a whole day nosing your way through shops that sell edgy fashions, amazing fabrics, cool hoodies, collectibles, ergonomic Scandinavian kitchen gadgets, old-fashioned toys, chandeliers, great art…Kensington defines variety!
And your taste buds have free reign in Kensington. Whatever their desire, you can give them what they want, from tarts and tandoori to cheese or Lebanese!
A great way to spend a day would be to work a good long visit to Kensington into a walking circle tour. Take the footbridge beside the Louise Bridge across to Prince’s Island Park, and stroll east toward Chinatown and Eau Claire Market. Eau Claire houses a variety of apparel and specialty stores, as well as a number of restaurants and a movie theatre complex.
All that walking likely left you with a raging appetite. If that’s the case, end your stroll in the middle of Prince’s Island Park, where the River Café’s mountain lodge atmosphere complements seasonal Canadian cuisine and sums up Calgary’s eclectic scene.
